Public Enemy

ARTICLES ABOUT PUBLIC ENEMY BY DATE - PAGE 5

By Matt Pais. MATT PAIS IS THE METROMIX MUSIC AND MOVIES PRODUCER | July 16, 2008

If you're interested in some of the best music Chicago summers have to offer, you've either got your ticket for this year's Pitchfork Music Fest or you're thinking about buying one. Just one problem: Who the heck are these bands? No worries if you don't know your Ruby Suns from your King Khan and the Shrines. Out of a few dozen established and up-and-coming rock, hip-hop and indie acts, here are 10 not to miss this weekend. Note: Some running may be required to fit everything in. Get the full lineup at metromix.

Watch out, world. Flavor Flav is getting serious. Sure, he still peppers his conversation with some "Yeahhhh, boyeeee!" and every now and then he busts out one of those wild cackles that have made him one of hip-hop's most recognizable rappers of the past two decades as part of Public Enemy. But as Flav talks about his first sitcom, "Under One Roof," which airs its second episode at 7 p.m. Wednesday on MyNetworkTV, something is clearly different with him, even from his persona on his hit reality show "Flavor of Love."

The Pitchfork Music Festival is adding some heavy hitters to its lineup, including Dinosaur Jr., Mission of Burma, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker and Wu-Tang Clan rappers Ghostface and Raekwon. The additions, to be announced Friday on pitchforkmedia.com, bolster an already strong bill for the third annual festival, which will be held July 18-20 in Union Park. Previously announced performers include Vampire Weekend, Public Enemy and Spiritualized. As part of the opening night lineup, Mission of Burma will perform its first album, the 1982 post-punk classic "Vs."

The taste-makers at Pitchfork Media are bringing the Public to the people this summer -- Public Enemy, that is. On Monday, Pitchfork announced a partial lineup for its annual music fest on pitchforkmusicfestival.com. Most notable was Public Enemy, which will perform the classic album "It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back." Vampire Weekend, !!!, and Spiritualized also have committed to play, with more bands to come. The weekend festival will return to Chicago's Union Park July 18-20.

Public Enemy will perform its 1988 classic, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back," as part of the third Pitchfork Music Festival, July 18-20 in Union Park, the Chicago-based Internet music magazine said Monday. Other performers will include eccentric jam band Animal Collective, psychedelic rockers Spiritualized, indie-funksters !!!, singer-songwriter M. Ward, Japanese metal band Boris, the much-buzzed-about Vampire Weekend and British rapper Dizzee Rascal, as well as No Age, Atlas Sound, Fleet Foxes , Extra Golden and El Guincho.

Kevin Federline says the intense scrutiny of his personal life with Britney Spears has hurt but also helped. "I don't think it hurt the relationship, and I don't regret letting people in," he tells Interview magazine, according to excerpts in Us Weekly. "I mean, you want to have your private life. But I've found a way to do that and deal with everything at the same time."

No one appreciates a joke quite like the gleeful Flavor Flav. That's a good thing, since the Public Enemy hype man-turned reality TV star is set to be the butt of many a joke as the victim of Comedy Central's next comedy roast. "The Flavor of Love" star has agreed to take center stage while comedians and celebrities including Jimmy Kimmel, Ice-T and, yes, Carrot Top poke fun at him at the July 22 taping, the New York Post reports. Set your clocks.

On the good karma side, the last time a defending NBA champion lost in the first round, Scott Skiles coached the Suns and the Spurs bit the dust in 2000. And when the home team wins the first two games of a seven-game series, it has advanced to the next round 95 percent of the time (153-8). On the bad karma side, the last time the Bulls held a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series, the 2005 team lost four straight to the Wizards. Further, the last time the Heat trailed 2-0, it won four straight in last season's NBA Finals to beat the Mavericks.

The Intonation Festival, a major rock event that headlined at Union Park the last two summers, will not return this summer, organizers said Thursday. Intonation had hoped to return to Union Park over the Labor Day weekend, but what spokesman David Singer called a glut of summer festivals prevented it from doing so. Singer said Intonation would focus on staging smaller "boutique" concerts in Chicago this year instead of a major festival. Plans for next year are unclear. The rock festival competition includes Lollapalooza in Grant Park on Aug. 3-5, Pitchfork in Union Park on July 13-15 and Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival on July 28 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview.

One of the best albums of the new year can't be bought. Tim Fite's "Over the Counter Culture" is both a critique and a celebration of hip-hop. It's packed with crackling beats, wicked humor and "did he just say that?" audacity. But it won't be available in any store. Instead, it will be distributed as a free download through the artist's Web site (www.timfite.com), starting Tuesday. Plenty of unknown artists have given away their music in an effort to get it heard. What's different about Fite's album is that he's already signed to a respected label, Anti, also home to artists such as Tom Waits, Neko Case, Nick Cave and Mavis Staples.